Bush, Kerry fill Ohio's airwaves with ads
Tired of television commercials that begin or end with "I'm (George W. Bush or John Kerry), and I approve this message?"
They seem to be on TV all the time. Actually, in the Youngstown market that's not an exaggeration.
If you have friends and/or relatives in New York, Texas, New Jersey, California or about 30 other states not considered "key battleground states," they probably don't know what you're talking about if you mention the "approve this message" phrase.
A study released this week by Nielsen Monitor-Plus and the University of Wisconsin Advertising Project shows that the campaigns of Bush and Kerry, and organizations that support the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, are focusing their attention on a handful of states, with Ohio at the top of the list.
The report of the nation's 210 media markets show that nearly 60 percent of Americans live in areas where no presidential campaign TV ads were broadcast between March 3 and June 20, said Joel Rivlin, Wisconsin Advertising Project's deputy director.
Most of the attention is on cities in those few key battleground states, Rivlin said.
At No. 1 is Toledo, followed by Dayton with Columbus and Cleveland ranking 4th and 5th, respectively. Kansas City is in third place.
Not that far down on the list is the Youngstown TV market at 26th place nationwide. Yup, we're at 26th place, and based on the statistics of the study, we're not terribly far from No. 1. In your face Gary, Ind.! We beat you again, Flint, Mich.!
Youngstown sees more Kerry and Democratic organization commercials than Bush ones. For Bush, the Youngstown market is 61st as far as advertising. For Kerry and the Democratic groups such as the Media Fund and MoveOn.org, Youngstown is 19th.
"The logic of Bush advertising in a heavily Democratic market like Youngstown isn't to win that market, but to maybe pull out an extra 1,000 people from there," Rivlin said. "If he can do that, he can probably win the state because the election in Ohio is that close."
Most polls have Ohio as a dead heat between the two candidates, and several political experts say the state will determine the presidential election.
Bush's campaign ran more ads than Kerry's campaign in 83 of the 93 media markets in which presidential campaign TV ads air, the study states. But when you add the Democratic groups into the mix, Democratic advertising is more prominent in 62 of those same 93 markets.
The campaigns of the two candidates and the Democratic groups have spent about $200 million on TV advertising, Rivlin said.
The report states both candidates are targeting women over men and older voters over younger ones.
The report is based on gross rating points, a unit of measurement that takes some explanation. The study looks at the ratings of programs in which a commercial airs, and how many times the commercial played.
One ratings point for a TV show is equal to 1 percent of the total television household audience in a media market. Fifty airings of an advertisement, each during a show with an average 10-point rating, would achieve a total of 500 GRPs. That's the same as 100 percent of all TV households in a market viewing the spot five times, or 50 percent of the households seeing the ad 10 times on average, the report states.
Toledo, which is No. 1, had ads totaling 30,000 GRPs while Youngstown had 23,191 GRPs. The average household in Youngstown saw 232 presidential ads between March 3 and June 30, Rivlin said.
Both campaigns heavily favored local news in their media buys, accounting for 40 percent of their TV advertising. Then came morning network shows, followed by late morning and afternoon talk shows such as "The Oprah Winfrey Show," "Dr. Phil," and "Live with Regis and Kelly." [When I'm stuck waiting for an oil change or a car tune-up at the Midas in Austintown, the TV in the waiting room is playing either "Oprah" or "Dr. Phil," or if I'm there for a while, both of them. No offense to anyone who likes these shows, but I enjoy them as much as getting a cavity filled. Well, I guess I just offended you. Sorry.]
After the talk shows, presidential advertising dollars went to syndicated shows after the news such as "Wheel of Fortune," and "Jeopardy!" Prime-time shows don't get much presidential advertising action because it's more expensive than other programming.
Is pouring a ton of money to air TV commercials in Ohio working? It's hard to say, but as Rivlin said, every vote in Ohio counts.